At about 2:30 A.M. on November 9th, 2016, Democratic Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton called President-elect Donald Trump to congratulate him on his victory and officially concede the election.

Trump won that election with 306 electoral votes, a margin he declared to be a “landslide”. Four years later, Joe Biden appears to have beaten him with the same number of votes, yet Trump has refused to concede, and many people aren’t even surprised. 

Less than 48 hours after Clinton conceded the 2016 election, President Barack Obama met with Trump to help him prepare for the transition. Two weeks have gone by since most major news sources called the 2020 election for Joe Biden, yet Trump is showing no signs of doing the same. In fact, he is going in the completely opposite direction, with his legal team doing all they can to try to invalidate the results. 

This raises many unsettling questions about the future of American democracy and reveals what Trump truly values most. 

Many political scientists say that it’s important to look at democracy as a spectrum. The fact is that Trump lost the 2020 election and he will have to leave office on January 20, 2021. With this in mind, it is true that American democracy has survived the age of Trump. Still, it has been weakened by his divisive rhetoric, discriminatory policies, and costly pride. This is proven further by each day that Trump does not concede.  

A refusal to transfer power and obey the voice of the nation’s people would be alarming enough, but it becomes even more dangerous when put into context. With COVID-19 cases reaching new highs in multiple states, we need a president who is prepared and fully-equipped to fight the virus. Instead, Trump is telling his advisors not to help the Biden administration prepare to combat the virus, proving that he values his own pride over the well-being of the country. 

In most cases, this would be a huge surprise. But with Trump, it’s just another day at the office. Or, the golf course rather. Keep in mind that this is the same president who failed to condemn white supremacy and called out sports teams such as the former Washington Redskins for changing their name, urging them not to be politically correct. Trump has no problem with offending people, and this likely hurt him greatly in this election. 

Trump really shouldn’t be surprised that he lost, either. As the president watched his early lead dwindle with the increased number of mail-in votes reporting, he took to Twitter to complain of a “rigged election”. He seemed surprised that the majority of mail-in votes were for Biden, though he urged his supporters to vote in person. Combine this with consistently low approval ratings and it stands to reason that he could’ve seen this as a possible outcome. But maybe his ego is even larger than we thought. 

By attempting to invalidate the results, instead of helping the Biden administration take on this deadly virus, Trump isn’t just dividing our country one final time, he is putting millions of American lives at risk. 

No one is exactly sure what will come as a result of this election. With this being said, it is evident that Trump will continue to harm the country until the day that he is literally forced out of office. Only then, with his shadow behind us, can we finally start to rebuild.